Skip to main content

tv   Power Lunch  CNBC  March 21, 2013 1:00pm-2:00pm EDT

1:00 pm
now get 200 free trades when you open an account. you know it can be hard to lbreathe, and how that feels.e, copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms by keeping my airways open for 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. spiriva handihaler tiotropium bromide inhalation powder does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better.
1:01 pm
(blowing sound) ask your doctor about spiriva. a talking car. but i'll tell you what impresses me. a talking train. this ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what it's carrying, while using less fuel. delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. ♪ after all, what's the point of talking if you don't have something important to say? ♪ how how about this? the winner of our debate, according to all of you, simon,
1:02 pm
the bear, on nike, which is interesting. i thought it was going to go the other way. a lot of people like nike here. >> i should mention that simon has a lot of employees who tweet in votes. >> if you concern we're closer to the top, look at splv, the low volatility. >> doc? >> juniper, a lot of call buying out in may. >> b.k. >> pretend you're a russian billionaire and buy gold. >> have a great day. "power" starts now. >> "halftime" is over. "power lunch" starts right now. >> all right, folks. oracle's ceo's message to wall street, do not blame me. the sales guys blew it. what was really behind this uncommon comment from an american corporate giant? and the eu to cyprus. lots of straight talk today. figure it out and do it fast! get back to us by monday. the bank lines long as cypriots try to get money out of the atms
1:03 pm
while it is still there. we're talking about an economy on the brink potentially of collapse. how far might the dominos fall? domino's. i like domino's sugar, but i like milk a lot. i drink a lot of milk. you got money? you got milk? the milk industry as an utterly big problem on its hands. think about it. and new costs. they may be about to get passed on to you in the milk market. the stock market has taken a hit, sue. >> i'm laughing at the "udderly," and it's utterly ridiculous that some things down here are focusing on. we're down a little bit but not as much as one would think given all the headline risk you outlined. the dow jones industrial average is off 54 points, the s&p is off 6. the nasdaq off about 18. gold has a little bounce, 5 bucks or so, and west texas intermediate is trading down about a buck on the trading session. u.s. markets falling due to some less-than-stellar corporate
1:04 pm
reports in the last 24 # hours. it's also worth noting that european stocks traded lower today on weaker than expected manufacturing data. and, of course, we're basically down from london all the way across to madrid. most of the european markets, as you can see, finishing with losses between 0.5% and 1.5% to france. let's bring in cnbc contributor. what are you watching here? because the market seems to have shifted from europe more to data. >> right. it is looking at the data because cyprus, even though we know it's kind of imploding at the moment, it's going to focus back to our data. we're stuck in this 1555 range. wee keep bouncing back. not breaking out. no reason to and really not collapsing because we've still got the fed there, and everyone knows it. it's kind of found support there. so quite honestly, we're just churning here. not a lot of volume which kind of tells you people are waiting. don't forget, we're at the end
1:05 pm
of the quarter next week. they're trying to hold it right. they don't want it to collapse, but there's no real reason to push it. >> everybody wants to finish the quarter in the green. it's been a solid quarter. >> and if they hold it right here, we'll do fine. >> we'll see. down 57 points. >> i think that's probably what we'll do today. >> ty, up to you. sue, oracle getting hammered after the company missed profit estimates. year to date, the stock is just barely in positive territory while the nasdaq is up more than 7%. oracle executives were quick to throw the sales team under the bus. cfo katz said, quote, what we really saw was lack of urgency we sometimes see in the sales force as u3 falls into q4. since we've been adding literally thousands of new sales reps around the country and the world, the problem was largely with sales execution, said mr. ka catz, especially with the new
1:06 pm
reps. that's not nice. john backus is a venture capitalist at new atlantic ventures in d.c. and we did reach out to oracle earlier today for a response on mr. ellison's travel schedule, but we've yet to hear back from the company. john fortt, fill us in on this story. >> well, i think ms. catz has a point here, but maybe the sales team wasn't thrown under the bus. i think they've been in a way under the bus for a while now. it's important to go back, back in june, the head of sales, keith block, left oracle. and one of the stories that i have heard today is i've kind of asked questions around this, is that oracle has still been transitioning the sales force, trying to go from selling mostly database to selling hardware and clad applications as well, and it kind of caught up to them. q4 is the time when the sales team really has to perform, if they're going to hit their annual quota. we really have to see if they show up in this case. i still think, though, they're going to have kinks to work out
1:07 pm
going forward because they're really trying to sell this suite of products in a whole different way than in the past. there could be something to the story, tyler. >> to the other john, if i might. you know, we did a little digging, and we noticed that mr. ellison -- i don't want to say he's been an absentee ceo, but he does a lot of traveling. he's on the yachting circuit, obviously. and we sort of ask the question, where is he? he has gone in various places over the last year. he's been down at indian wells where he has a lot of houses in malibu. in fact, he owns most of malibu -- not really, but he's been to the tennis tournament. he's been he owns most of lan'ai. indian wells, owns a tennis tournament, redwood city, california, over in italy listening to an andrea bocelli concert. there he is down again in malibu. he's been everywhere, john. is he paying enough attention or not? >> well, first much all, i hope he's not taking his entire
1:08 pm
management team with him on all of these trips. i was struck by the quotation you just referenced. i don't think they have a sales execution problem. i think they have a sales management problem. if you're hiring thousands of new sales reps all over the world, two thoughts. number one, that costs you hundreds of millions of dollars. 2,000 sales reps at $100,000 a year is $200 million. so you have a lot of training to do. the second thing i know about salespeople is, if you take five salespeople into the same meeting, one salesperson is going to tell you this deal's about to close. another salesperson is going to tell you they're never going to buy. so they have a management problem more than an execution problem. >> since you raised the question of management, is it smart management, john backus, to basically take your sales force to the wood shed this way? and as a management tactic, aren't you better off as a ceo or a cfo saying, mea culpa. they've got some issues.
1:09 pm
we're going to address them, and take the blame yourself. >> you never want to blame your team. you have to start by blaming yourself. the minute you throw your team under the bus, you're try to manage through fear. you're not inspiring them. you're threatening them. i think you'll see a lot of resumes hitting the streets from oracle sales reps this week. >> i don't know. >> go ahead, john, as we look at what mr. bob herbold said. >> oracle's got a really tough culture. this is q4, this is their time to perform. they're out to make money. that's what it comes down to. i don't know if they'll get their feelings hurt and turn in resumes. >> gentlemen, thank you very much. hewlett-packard, a shaky turnaround, but hewlett-packard still has money to investors. boosting its quarterly dividend. hp stock up more than 60% this year so far.
1:10 pm
also, of course, watching the rival dell. our andrew ross sorkin at an event in new orleans, he's reporting there that the sentiment is that blackstone, the big private equity firm, will not make a bid for dell. those comments moving the stock and not in a good way. it's down 12 cents. that little chart kind of overstates the amount of the drop. but it is down today, sue. >> indeed it is, ty. thank you. and now to the russian rage over the way the europeans are handling the crisis in cyprus. a place where a lot of powerful russians have an awful lot of money. steve sedgwick is live in moscow reporting on possible russian solutions for us. good evening, steve. >> reporter: yeah, a very good evening to you. well, look, i've just been to a meeting this morning between the european commission president, barroso, and the prime minister of russia, mr. medvedev. and despite the very fine words on the surface, it is very clear the russians are very upset with the europeans. as you mentioned, sue, a huge amount of interest the russians
1:11 pm
have down in cyprus as well. and they're really upset they weren't included in the negotiations for some form of bailout package initially. they've said the europeans have behaved like a bully in a china shop. they've also said they've done everything wrong. and this is the best one i thought. they're accusing them of absolutely misappropriating assets akin to something that happened in the soviet era. this is the russians telling the europeans they're doing something completely wrong on property rights. quite extraordinary. the russians have said they will work with europeans. europeans have said they will work with the russians. despite that, key european policymakers are still raising doubts about russian participation. the dutch finance minister, also the head of the euro group of finance ministers in the eurozone, let's listen in to what he had to say about a russian option. >> wron whi don't know what the russians might consider. there is a loan from the russians already. we'll see what can be done with that loan. i'm afraid that -- well, let's
1:12 pm
just see what the russian option might deliver. i haven't heard much good news from that side. >> reporter: quite incredible, isn't it, that the europeans are still saying we don't know what the russians are up to. for his part, the character of this in russia, moscow is a big place, of course. but having seen the key europeans and key russians today, he's been locked up somewhere, possibly at the finance ministry in talks trying to get some form of russian aid, whether it be in the form of bank aid, energy assets or indeed an extension to the loan they already have, a 2.5 billion euro loan. i've got a feeling a lot of the action will happen in the next 24 hours. back to you. >> i think you're probably right, steve. thank you very much. well, all of this, of course, has the people of cyprus extremely upset. they have taken to the streets protesting in front of parliament. and that is where we find our michelle caruso-cabrera. she's following the story from
1:13 pm
the cyprus standpoint. michelle? >> reporter: yes, hi there, sue. about 100 meters that way or where you see all the prote protesters, they gathered a couple hours ago. they learned that the bank is going to be shut down, one of the two insolvent banks here in cyprus, one of the measures they're going to likely have to take in order to secure a bailout. behind me is the parliament. inside we understand that they are going to pass a law that gives the central bank the right to shut down banks in this country. they didn't have the right to do that before. if you don't understand a lot about banking or bailouts, this is very simple. if you shut down a bad bank, you save a lot of money. if you try to save a bad bank, it costs a lot of money. you have to pour capital into it. you have to dig a hole in the ground and pour money into it to have a very strong base for a bank. the worse the bank is, the more it's going to cost. it gets a lot cheaper just to shut it down. they're going to split into a good bank and a bad bank.
1:14 pm
the impaired assets will sell off over time. what is likely to happen is the junior bondholders, senior bondholders will get wiped out, all the equity will go away, of course. in-sure depositors i am told will be fully protected. nobody below 100,000 yeuros wil lose money. losses, those people will get equity in a new bank. the protest is related to the fact that 2,000 people are likely to lose their jobs as a result of that shutting down of the bank. in the meantime, people have gotten word that something was likely to happen because if you take a look at what the lines were like outside of the bank atms today, they were at least 20 deep. most of the time throughout the city, we drove past many of them. people had gotten word that something was up. if you've got less than 100,000 euros, you're going to be just fine. it's above 100,000 euros that you're likely to face losses. this is all the result of the
1:15 pm
financial crisis still ongoing here in europe as they try to figure out country by country exactly what they're going to do. they've taken a very different role here, sue. they didn't impose austerity on the country. it's only 1 million people. you couldn't tax them enough because it's a very small place. they had to go after the banking system because it was so, so huge. we'll keep you updated. back to you. >> michelle caruso-cabrera reporting from nicosia today. josh lipton with a market flash. >> hey there, tyler. check out apple which is moving higher here. i spoke to scott redler of t3 live who is long the stock. he said people have been getting antsy that an announcement on a dividend or buyback is coming. he also adds that technically the stock has been acting better. we had an initial move higher last week, held higher, digested those gains. now looks back in motion. traders want to see if we can take back 462, which is the 50-day, haven't been above that since october. if we can, then that would be constructive. apple up about 1.1% right now.
1:16 pm
tyler, back to you. >> thank you. on the homefront, sales of existing homes now at their highest level in more than three years. mortgage rates remain near historic lows. they're a little higher than the most recent couple weeks. home prices moving up. diane diana olick on the realty check. people who want to put their house on the market this spring should be encouraged, right? >> reporter: well, they should be encouraged, look, but it's not for the reasons you might think. sales are better than they have been in over three years, but sales three years ago weren't that great. the good news is that home prices are rising, and supplies are still very, very low. so if you are a home seller, your days on the market are going to be dramatically less. if you're a homebuyer, the trouble is there's just nothing out there to buy, and that's why prices are increasing so dramatically. we spoke to a couple in northern virginia who said every home they see, there's already six offers on it in 48 hours.
1:17 pm
it's a tough market but not for the reasons you would think. >> it's a bidding war kind of a market. i note that you reported yesterday separately that mortgage loans are getting easier to get, basically. >> reporter: well, they're getting easier in some respects. you're able to get loans where you're putting less than 10% down, not just fha loans. fannie and freddie are buying more. credit is beginning to ease a bit. you still have tough underwriting. we are now back to the heyday where anybody and their dog could get a mortgage if they wanted one. the banks aren't doing as many refis so now they're turning more to home purchase applications. there are very low rates which is good for buyers if they can find something to buy. >> i think it was my dog that got me into that bad mortgage. appreciate it. sue. up next, an amazing story from president obama's trip to the high-tech conference in israel where they're working on technology that is helping the
1:18 pm
paralyzed to walk again. plus, a game changer for suburbia. phil lebeau is live in chicago. phil? >> sue, i had one, a lot of my friends had one, minivans. they used to be part of living in suburban america. those days are gone. what's replacing it? the wagon. that's coming up on "power lunch." [ male announcer ] every famous curve
1:19 pm
has an equally thrilling, lesser-known counterpart. conquer them with the exhilarating is 250. get great values on your favorite lexus models during the command performance sales event. this is the pursuit of perfection. redesigned site has this new score planner tool with these cool sliders. this one lets us know what happens if someone checks our credit. oh. this one lets us know what happens if we pay off our loans. yeah. what's this one do? i dunno.
1:20 pm
♪every rose has it's thorn ♪just like every night ♪has it's dawn score planner is free to everyone. free score applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com bret michaels slider still in beta. just just a fantastic story to tell you about. president obama visiting a
1:21 pm
high-tech conference during thinks trip to jerusalem today. he met two americans who were recently paralyzed, but now they're walking again with the aid of awe new israeli technology which is called rewalk. it helps restore leg function to people who have lost it. and that technology helps paralysis victims get up, stand, walk and sit again. boeing will run two flights -- flight tests,sts, th is, of its revamped 787 battery system maybe as soon as tomorrow. those tests would mark another step towards boeing's goal to service in just a matter of weeks. the stock is up 13% this year, it's 1%, though, in today's trading day. ty, up to you. they may be practical, but they have never been cool. some people i know would never be caught driving one, the great minivan. but now an answer may be coming to the surface to satisfy the need for convenience and style and roominess, family-friendly car. phil lebeau who just admitted
1:22 pm
that he did once drive a minivan. >> absolutely. are you saying i'm not cool, tiler? are you saying i'm not cool? >> i'm not saying. >> we'll talk about that later on. let me show you a stat that i think a lot of people will say just how out of favor are minivans? look at how sales have fallen since 2000. back in 2000, about 8% of all vehicles sold in the u.s. were minivans, $1.3 million in total sales. now it's dropped all the way down to 3%, year to date. 3% of all auto sales are minivans. what's happened? this year minivan sales overall are down 10%. they continue to be under pressure. the industry, meanwhile, has seen sales increase by 8.4%. it's an up market but a down market if you're one of the minivan makers, chrysler being the most noteworthy here in the u.s. minivan sales are hurt by fewer model choices. when you compare that with crossovers and sport utility wagons. in that market, it's red hot right now. cuv sales are up 15.2% year to date and we're really seeing an
1:23 pm
increase in the number of sport utility wagons. and all of this is giving buyers more choices when they go into the showroom. >> before it was more of the traditional midsize, large crossover, but now they're getting smaller and smaller. now even compact and subcompact, crossover suvs which kind of really straddle the line between wagon and suv. >> well, for the automakers as they've moved into cuvs, things have been improving but take a look at what we've seen from auto stocks in the last year. you know, there's some decent returns but not anything close to what we've seen for the rest of the market. the bottom line is this, sue. you're going to see more cuvs and sport wagons. minivans will always be there but definitely have become a niche vehicle. sue? >> listen, i loved my town & country. it was fantastic. with the exception of no all-wheel drive. thanks very much. >> in my book, you're cool. >> absolutely. thank you, phil. is the price of milk about to shoot higher? well, jane wells is down on the farm in moorpark, california.
1:24 pm
>> reporter: sue, i'm surrounded by cow food, but how much do you know how to pay for milk if you don't know how much it's going to be? that's coming up. get get the cowboy boots out of the closet because the "power house" is in dallas, texas. how far will your money roam? pretty far. that's coming up. [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles military families face, we understand. our financial advice is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. life brings obstacles. usaa brings retirement advice. omnipotent of opportunity. you know how to mix business... with business. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size price.
1:25 pm
i could get used to this. [ male announcer ] yes, you could business pro. yes, you could. go national. go like a pro. ♪ [ indistinct shouting ] [ male announcer ] time and sales data. split-second stats. [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ it's so close to the options floor... [ indistinct shouting, bell dinging ] ...you'll bust your brain box. ♪ all on thinkorswim from td ameritrade. ♪
1:26 pm
i work for 47 different companies. well, technically i work for one. that company, the united states postal service® works for thousands of home businesses. because at usps.com® you can pay, print and have your packages picked up for free. i can even drop off free boxes. i wear a lot of hats. well, technically i wear one. the u.s. postal service®, no business too small. for current and former military members and their families. get advice from the people who share your values. for our free usaa retirement guide, call 877-242-usaa. yahoo!
1:27 pm
yahoo! bucking today's downward trend. as you see, it is higher by 70 cents, continuing a nice little move for that stock. $22.80. oppenheimer changing its longtime neutral stance on yahoo! upgrading to outperform and raising its price targ ed to $27. that would be a nice move, sue. it sure would, ty. milk is a humg deal in washington. in fact, the milk industry carries a lot of weight. but now dairy farmers are utterly concerned about the relationship, and you should be concerned about the impact. jane wells is live in moorpark, california. hi, jane. >> reporter: hey, sue. we'll have to see what spillover we get from this. the restaurant industry buys a lot of milk and milk products. and the suspension of these monthly milk product reports from the usda has the american restaurant association's david maloney concerned it's going to create uncertainty which means his members will pay more for dairy. >> we're also concerned about the liquidity in the dairy markets which are already
1:28 pm
relatively illiquid which would make it harder for our clients to contract. >> reporter: it's been tough for dairy. the average price for a gallon is 4 cents down from a year ago. dean foods, the largest milk processor in the country, is planning another 15% reduction. they're predicting zero net growth production. we're just not drinking it. that could be offset by china, but despite the uncertainty in milk pricing, the restaurant association is optimistic that the cost of everything else may come down if the weather holds and we plant the largest corn crop since fdr. >> we believe that this could be the start of something like we tell our clients, beautiful for the restaurant industry and major food commodities. >> reporter: well, they were expecting that last year, and then we had the drought. we'll have to see what happens this year, sue. noaa is already saying the
1:29 pm
spring is going to be hotter and drier than normal. back to you. >> thank you very much. and something significant may be happening as we speak with the american jobs picture. what does ben bernanke know that the rest of the country including wall street doesn't seem to know? and the "power house." this week we're going to go to dallas where everything is bigger, of course. even the real estate. maybe not the prices. your money goes a long way in dallas. see just how far in two minutes. [ male announcer ] how can power consumption in china, impact wool exports from new zealand, textile production in spain, and the use of medical technology in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds
1:30 pm
beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. ...amelia... neil and buzz: for teaching us that you can't create the future... by clinging to the past. and with that: you're history. instead of looking behind... delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions... in everything from the best experiences below... to the finest comforts above. we're not simply saluting history... we're making it.
1:31 pm
1:32 pm
i'm sharon i'm sharon epperson at the nymex. gold prices closing right now at the highest level we've seen in about a month. we're looking at a close here up about $6 on the session, around 1614 an ounce. and we are seeing, of course, cyprus as a major reason for the safety bid in the gold market. a lot of shorts covering their positions here. elsewhere, though, we're looking at some of the investment firms saying that gold prices are actually going to be pretty weak performers for 2013. barclay out with a note saying that. and society general saying that gold could be around 1400 or under this year. meanwhile, elsewhere in the metals market, a mixed picture. back to you. >> sharon, thank you very much. don't hewn here on the trad
1:33 pm
floor with bob pisani, we lost a little strength, about 77 points. >> oracle's been a drag on techs all day. ibm's a real drag on the dow as well. i just want to put up the transports because as i was coming down the stairs, the transports moved to the lows of the day. you see that little droop there. >> yeah, down 95 points. >> so the transports are a little more than 2% off their historic highs. i don't think that's enough to raise any eyebrows. but i have got my eye on it. do put up what's moving here down on the transports. you'll notice it's the transport companies, the guys who move things around like fedex, ryder, gmt, landstar. fedex, please note, i think was $109 last friday. we're down 12% on fedex this week. that's a real mover here. elsewhere on separate subjects, suntech power declared bankruptcy the other day in china. i thought that was a big story. a lot of other people didn't pick up on it. it was halted yesterday here at the new york stock exchange.
1:34 pm
it's reopened today. down 21%. it's a penny stock. and the big question is what are they going to do with it? i bet you, and there's a lot of people betting that the chinese government's going to try to revive it again. i think that's one reason you're seeing solar stocks. you'd think one of their big competitors has just been taken out is good news. overcapacity in this industry has been a problem for a long time. that's why these stocks have no -- they move around crazy every day depending on what the local rumors are. >> bob, thank you very much. now down 83 points on the dow jones industrial average. bob mentioned oracle being a drag on techs. let's go up to the nasdaq where seema is following the big movers. >> i'll get to oracle in a second. take a look at apple. this stock continues to move in the opposite direction of the markets. i'm calling it the rebel in tech. yesterday we saw tech shares outperform, but apple did not participate in the rally. today we're seeing somewhat of a selloff in tech. and hey, take a look at apple. shares outperforming the pack, up about 1% on the day.
1:35 pm
gray wolf says i'd rather own apple than the s&p 500 at these levels. we'll continue to watch shares of apple. tech, one of the worst performing sectors on the day. oracle partly due to that. worrying investors on the street. a decline in software sales and subscriptions. jabil circuit, another loser after its forecasts were short of expectations and cisco lower on a downgrade. sue, back to you. we're down 85 points now on the dow jones industrial average. perhaps some of that money is seeking the bond market. let's find out. rick santelli's tracking the action for us. hi, ricky. >> reporter: hi, sue. whether it's money coming out of stocks or just money from somewhere, it almost doesn't matter, and between the weakness in equities and early headlines out of cyprus, you see on the intraday chart, that established the session. we're basically down four basis points. right now 192 yield. should we close in this zone, it will be a two-week close.
1:36 pm
doesn't look like a positive formation if you're looking for yields to move higher. it's really exaggerated by looking at year to date, a boon. the boon right now, at a 56 basis point deficit to the treasuries. that's a wide spread. and the last two-day chart of the euro versus the dollar. should it break through 1.28.80, it could challenge the current four-month lows versus the greenback. sue, back to you. >> rick, thank you very much. some new clues about the state of the job market today. the number of americans filing unemployment benefits rising slightly last week to 336,000. a tad below estimates. we've seen a number of job cuts announced recently. so is the labor market running out of steam? listen to what "mad money's" jim cramer said earlier today. >> tens of thousands of people are going to be laid off within the next month. >> whatever little. >> and that's going to show up in the numbers, in that 330,000 employment, that may be the last good one. bernanke is not smoking dope, pot, whatever they call it now. >> well, is he right?
1:37 pm
joining us now is "the wall street journal's" chief economics correspondent john hillsenrath. good to see you. >> good to be here. i agree with one thing that jim said earlier. i don't think that the chairman of the fed is smoking dope. you know, as far as a blow-up happening in the job market, if it's happening, i don't see it. today's jobless claims numbers were pretty good, actually. you know, people filing unemployment benefits, they're back around the levels they were at in early 2008. i mean, it's not totally recovered, but that's a market that's improving. >> it seems to be improving, yet sometimes when we get those headline numbers, then there are revisions in past months. and i guess the question is, especially looking in the rearview mirror with yesterday's fed meeting, the market down here anyway is focused on the fact that given the fact that we aren't getting dramatic improvement in the jobs report, that we probably will have fairly easy monetary policy as
1:38 pm
the dow moves to the loaf of s day, down almost 100 points. they're worried about the pace of the improvement, but it doesn't sound like you are. >> yeah. a couple things. one is i wonder how much the market is reacting to today to the fact that the chairman was talking yesterday about maybe tapering off these purchases down the road. you know, if investors -- they always seem to get very upset whenever there's even a talk about kbexit. i wonder how much that's playing into the market today. as far as the way the fed's looking at it, i think that they want to see a lot more of what we've seen in the last few months. payroll gains have averaged around 200,000 a month for the last four months. that's pretty good. but, you know, we've had hiccups before. and i think they want to be convinced. i think they do keep these policies in place for a while until they're really sure that we're getting decent job growth. >> you know, the other thing that they're talking about down here, that they're chattering
1:39 pm
about is the fact that when the fed chief was asked about another term, he said he didn't think that he was the only one that could engineer the exit. that has a lot of traders down here nervous. although many of them don't like the fact that the fed is doing qe3, they want bernanke to do the qe3 exit. >> that's funny. you know, i think people in the markets generally are reversed to change, which is kind of ironic. but, you know, bernanke has tried to make the fed a more consensus-oriented place. i think there's some very talented people on the bench that he sees. i mean, we're just going to have to wait. he was very oblique about whether he wanted another term. he wouldn't really embrace the question. >> right. well, we can understand if he wouldn't want one, given what he's gone through, but thank you, john. good to see you again. >> okay. thanks a lot. we're going to look at the dow jones industrial average. we are just a couple of points off our low of the day. we were off about 99 points. right now the dow jones
1:40 pm
industrial average is off 95, being led lower as bob mentioned by the transportation average, which is now at its low of the day. it's down 108 points. so a little bit of a selloff going on, ty. >> thanks very much, sue. of course, all of the various indexes, the major ones that we follow, are at or near their lows of the day. cbs caremark demanding employees give up their weight and health information or pay a penalty. is that fair or outrageous? it is the topic, one of them, in the "power rundown" coming up. what does your money buy you in the big "d"? you can bet the ranch it will go a pretty long way. need five bedrooms for under $400,000? how about a 5,000 square foot pad under 800k? more bang for your buck when the "power house" comes right back. [ male announcer ] i've seen incredible things. otherworldly things.
1:41 pm
but there are some things i've never seen before. this ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. which is good for business. because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. suddenly, faraway places don't seem so...far away. ♪ with fidelity's new options platform, we've completely integrated every step of the process, making it easier to try filters and strategies... to get a list of equity options... evaluate them with our p&l calculator... and execute faster with our more intuitive trade ticket. i'm greg stevens and i helped create fidelity's options platform. it's one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account.
1:42 pm
all stations come over to mission a for a final go. this is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers.
1:43 pm
weather is the weather is beautiful but it's not a great day for swimming in western australia, mandy drury. hundreds of sharks traveling together off the coast of perth. beaches are closed there. the sharks were feeding on a giant school of fish, we're told. speaking of australia, many, have you ever seen sharks like that? >> i have never seen sharks do that. by the way, i'm going to australia next week, but fortunately to the east coast so i'm not going to be in the middle of a shark feeding frenzy. coming up on "street signs," we're going to try to dissect exactly how much of a threat cyprus is. a number of you have been tweeting whether it's a lehman-type event or whether it's background noise. tweet us and tell us what you think. also, why hasn't gold surged more in light of recent world events? that's a good question. and also, have you heard of thrillers? we've got the co-founder on to tell you exactly how young men
1:44 pm
can spend their hard-earned money on exciting things and smart experiences. all of those things coming up on the show, guys. back to you on "power lunch." >> thank you very much. have a good trip, by the way, if i don't get to wish it to you before. "power house" time. we're going to go to dallas. top producer with the o'gorman group. last year closed more than $143 million in sales. cindy is also ranked number 33 in "the wall street journal's" real trends realtor list. cindy, welcome and congratulations on those honors. let's go over some market stats, though, for the greater dallas area. and they all look pretty good. i'll get you to characterize them in a moment. over the past year, 5768 homes have been sold, suggesting that inventories are getting tighter. homes on average in the market for 78 days, that's lower. and the listing price is around $290,000 on average. about four months of supply or
1:45 pm
inventory. how would you characterize the dallas market right now, cindy? >> well, tyler, it's actually booming. it's kind of surprising. since january, it's just exploded. with the low inventory that we have and the low interest rates, we're starting to see multiple offers. and for the first time in a long time, we're seeing multiple sales in the over million-dollar range that we haven't seen in a long time. >> that's fantastic. so good news there if you're owning and want to sell. let's look at some of your listings. we're going to go to sort of stair step up from one at 2,800. they all happen to be in plano. $374,900. describe this one for us. >> this one is just under 4,000 square feet and priced at $95 a foot. it's actually a lot of home for the money. has hardwood floors, granite countertops. the neighborhood offers a pool, tennis and jogging paths. it's located in a great school district. >> that's fantastic.
1:46 pm
now, we're going to step up a little bit but staying in plano at 5737 river rock lane for $549,900. >> and river rock is actually an award-winning school district. it has hardwood floors, granite countertops, a resort-style pool and spa. and it also offers a pool and a large grass area which is very hard to find in plano. if you have a pool, it's hard to find a play yard as well. >> so it's got a pool and a play yard. this one, the house itself, not in the community. >> correct. >> it's your own pool. been on the market for 32 days. we're going to look on the inside of that house as you see there. it looks really quite lovely. these are big houses, aren't they? >> they are. >> you guys do it big down there in dallas, right? >> you do. you get a lot of value for your money. it's all bigger in texas. >> that sounds great. now let's step it up to $750,000 at 6901 crystal falls drive in plano. the taxes there about $13,000. this one's 5200 square feet.
1:47 pm
it's our "power house of the week." cindy, tell me about it. >> yeah, this one has a unique combination because it offers five bedrooms, a separate study, a game room and a media room as well as a pool spa, an outdoor kitchen. it's a custom home with a high finish out and a lot of extras. for under $1 million, it's a great value. >> that's a beautiful home. sign me up for that one, will you, cindy? >> okay, i'll do it. >> i like that one. how far out of the central part of dallas is plano? it's north, right? >> it is north, yes. it's really about 20 minutes from downtown, 20 minutes from dfw airport. it's very convenient. >> man. the only house in jersey that looks like that was owned by tony soprano, cindy. thank you. we appreciate you being with us. >> thank you, tyler. >> sue, you're going to take us to another "power house." >> i sure am. this is an interesting one to say the least. take a look at this "power house." it just hit the market, and it is also extremely nice. it is former treasury secretary tim geithner's bethesda,
1:48 pm
maryland, home. he picked it up, you may recall, for $950,000 back in 2009. we were right in the heart of the financial crisis. and even though he came from new york city, he was trying to move down to washington to be able to focus solely on that crisis. he's not trying to make much off of it either. it's listed for $955,000. it's a four-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath. it boasts two fireplaces, cathedral ceilings, two recreation rooms. tim geithner, of course, recently ending his stint in washington. he's now working on a highly anticipated book. ty, over to you. >> that's really amazing. that was $900,000, compared to the high $900,000 in texas. >> that last one was gorgeous. tom carney and cindy berman both have house envy after watching those house segment. google owns youtube and now says more than a billion people visit that online video site each
1:49 pm
month, noting that if the website was a country, they'd be the third largest in the world after china and india. youtube's pop later keeps -- if i was a country -- i don't know. where's the revenue, john? are they making any money? >> we don't know how much money they make. i suspect they can make significant amounts of revenue. just browsing through their top videos today, i saw a lot that had advertisements on it. i think youtube and google is not being very open about how much money they're making from youtube, but they might have good business for doing that. >> do they need to be that open? they don't want to tell everybody. >> look at the stock price. it doesn't look like investors care that they are just closing that. but it really is interesting. if you look at the earnings record, the word youtube isn't even mentioned in there. and some on wall street speculate they don't want to close youtube revenue because they're afraid it might get a bad reaction. i tend john could be right, that maybe they don't want to tell users. i think there's a lot more potential for them to make revenue. >> they have partners put it on youtube. if they become too open about
1:50 pm
how much money they're making, those partners will want a bigger chunk of it. >> interesting. you're going to stay with us because we're going to talk more. cbs telling its workers to show up for a physical and weigh in or pay $600 extra per year for health coverage. is this the right way to get a healthier work force? "the power rundown" continues after this short break. it's not what you think. it's a phoenix with 4 wheels. it's a hawk with night vision goggles. it's marching to the beat of a different drum. and where beauty meets brains. it's big ideas with smaller footprints. and knowing there's always more in the world to see. it's the all-new lincoln mkz.
1:51 pm
1:52 pm
1:53 pm
let's take let's take a look at where the dow jones industrial average is trading right now. down about 88 points. just above the lows of the trading session. we were off as much as 101 points on the trading day. and part of it is because they're still worried about the situation in cyprus certainly but also a big selloff, the worst day for the transmports i six months. ty, back over to you. jumping back into today's "power rundown" with john carney and cindy perman. oracle and its ceo, larry ellison, blaming their salespeople for a miss in the third quarter, specifically on revenue. that's where the real shortfall was. did oracle go too far in publicly saying this, who's really to blame? cindy, what do you think of this? >> i have to say if my performance is weak this
1:54 pm
quarter, it's john's fault. i think they did. when you say this publicly, look, sometimes you have problems with sales team. that's a behind-the-scenes thing. it says to me who's on first, who's on second, i don't know third base, sales force. larry said our turnaround's going to be delayed because of products. i think the bigger issues here are twofold. one, there may be a problem with the licensing model. more importantly for oracle, i think there's a discrepancy in management here. and i think that's the bigger concern for shareholders. >> john? >> it's got to be a bummer. if you want to demoralize your work force, tell them they're lazy and no good at doing their jobs. i think that's a mistake. i also think it's an indictment of management. if their sales force isn't properly motivated, they're not performing, you need to change something to get them going. exactly. >> new salespeople, are they the first ones to ever hire new salespeople? >> they say they have a lot of new people coming in.
1:55 pm
cvs telling its workers if they don't show up for a wellness review including tests for blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass, body weight, they'll have to pay $50 a month, $600 a year. let's see what you said in the yahoo! finance question of the day. 38% of you say corporations should not be dictating how we live our lives. is this the right way to get a healthier work force? john? >> i think it's a good idea. i think people don't need better influences in their lives. we don't want the government coming in. your employer takes care of a lot of things in your life, particularly your health insurance. it makes sense them for them to take an active interest in how healthy their work force is. >> john, how much do you weigh? >> 172 pounds. >> that's ridiculous. >> my weight? >> the way to motivate people, you've got to do something positive. i'll give you $100 to lose weight or if you join the gym. you can't demoralize people -- >> why not penalize them if they
1:56 pm
don't engage in healthy habits or don't stop smoking? why shouldn't they pay more for their insurance? >> if you ask a woman her weight, that is the quickest way to get punched in the nose. >> it's not like they're putting scales on the back of people's chairs and displaying it to everyone. it's going to remain private between them and the person doing the inspection. >> i commend them. i think we all need to be thinking about health, positive, not negative. >> one of the questions that some people have is whether this will really be kept private even though they say it will be private. they say it is voluntary. >> if it's not kept private. >> it will be a big issue. with all the hacking going on. >> struggling retailer jc penney saying its turnaround could take more time than initially thought. is this more trouble for the ceo? what do you say, cindy? >> absolutely. look, if you said to me i need you to improve your performance, i was, like, well, tyler, that's going to take some time. you want to hear action items. they made a huge mistake.
1:57 pm
i want to hear we made a huge mistake. we should not have pulled away coupons for people. the thing that motivates people in a tough economy -- >> and for their buyer, i guess. >> yeah, one of their new moves was joe fresh. i actually got a brochure for that brand. it's the equivalent of h&m. it's great staples but it's not the thing that's going to change the game. >> i applaud them for their openness. i think it's a good idea for them to set expectations properly. i do have to say the joe fresh brand, i was sitting with a couple women i know. they were looking through that same thing you got in the mail. and they loved it. they said they liked the way the clothes looked. they said the prices were extraordinary. so you know, i think there's some hope there. >> maybe they've got something going on there. >> it's not going to make me go to jc penney. >> come on. >> sorry. >> folks, thank you. the dow taking a big dip as we've been pointing out in the past few minutes. it's at about 93, 95 points. it was a little lower earlier, but really close to the lows of the day.
1:58 pm
ditto the s&p 500 and nasdaq. we'll tell you what's driving it and give you a wrap-up here as we round out "power lunch" for a thursday right after this.
1:59 pm

171 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on